Company Secretaryship · The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), a statutory body under the Company Secretaries Act, 1980
CS Executive — Company Secretary Executive Programme — the professional stage of the CS qualification
The complete CS Executive blueprint: tier-wise pattern, topic weightage from previous-year analyses, and free chapter-by-chapter study material.
7 papers 100 marks each, in two groups, under Syllabus 202220 : 80 case-study MCQ to descriptive, in every paper except Paper 4 (wholly descriptive)40% + 50% per paper, and per group in aggregate, to pass Free · tutor-verified
CS Executive at a glance
Conducted byThe Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), a statutory body under the Company Secretaries Act, 1980
CycleTwice a year — June and December sessions
ModePen-and-paper at ICSI examination centres. Every paper runs three hours (plus 15 minutes' reading time) for 100 marks
EligibilityEntry is via CSEET (the CS Executive Entrance Test), unless exempted — ICSI Foundation-passed students, graduates and postgraduates who meet the marks criterion, and candidates who have cleared CA Final or CMA Final are exempted from CSEET and can register directly. ICSI restructured CSEET itself in 2026: the current pattern (effective from the June 2026 session) is four papers across four days for 400 marks — Business Communication, Fundamentals of Accounting and Economic & Business Environment as subjective papers, and Business Laws & Management as an OMR-based objective paper — replacing the older single-day 200-mark pattern that last ran in January 2026. A mandatory Three Days Orientation Programme (TDOP) must be completed within three months of Executive registration, before exam-form enrolment, for anyone registering on or after 1 February 2025. Executive registration is valid for 5 years from the month of registration; a lapsed registration needs a fresh (de-novo) registration, ordinarily applied for within 2 years of expiry.
LanguagesEnglish
Qualifies you forA fresher taking up an in-house or industry compliance role immediately after qualifying (before Professional) commonly starts in the roughly ₹3-6 lakh a year range — figures vary considerably by source and city, and practice income (as a Company Secretary in independent practice) is not comparable, since it is far more back-loaded and variable. Compensation improves substantially with the completed CS qualification and with seniority — Company Secretary, Compliance Officer and governance-advisory roles in larger companies command considerably more.
Where CS Executive leads
CSEET-exempt or CSEET-cleared entry into CS Executive, then CS ProfessionalPractical training — a 30-day Executive Development Programme followed by 21 months under a practising Company Secretary or an eligible companyAssistant/junior compliance and secretarial roles in industry while completing Professional-level studyCorporate law, company-law-practice and capital-market compliance support rolesDirect and indirect tax computation and compliance support roles
⚡ What changed recently
- ICSI restructured CSEET for the June 2026 session onward — four papers, 400 marks, across four exam days, replacing the older 200-mark single-day pattern (last held January 2026). Confirm the exact current pattern with ICSI before an attempt, since this changed very recently.
- The Three Days Orientation Programme (TDOP) became a mandatory prerequisite for Executive-level exam-form enrolment for students registering on or after 1 February 2025.
- The paid-up share capital threshold that makes appointing a whole-time Company Secretary mandatory for a private company (Rule 8A) was raised from Rs. 5 crore to Rs. 10 crore with effect from 1 April 2020 — a Supreme Court challenge to the increase was dismissed. The listed-company and public-company thresholds under Rule 8 use the same Rs. 10 crore figure. This is separate from, and should not be confused with, Section 204's Secretarial Audit thresholds (Rs. 50 crore paid-up capital or Rs. 250 crore turnover, or Rs. 100 crore in bank/PFI borrowings).
- ICSI's New Training Structure — a 30-day Executive Development Programme followed by 21 months of practical training, with a shorter Professional Development Programme after Professional-level qualification — became mandatory for all students switching over from 1 April 2024, replacing the older training format.
- India's criminal-procedure and evidence framework changed structurally on 1 July 2024: the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) replaced the CrPC, and the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA) replaced the Indian Evidence Act. ICSI itself updated its Jurisprudence, Interpretation and General Laws study material to reflect BNS/BNSS/BSA — this hub's General Laws content is written to the current BNSS/BSA framework, not the superseded CrPC/Evidence Act, with a note on the transitional carve-out for pre-2024 matters.
How CS Executive selection works
Know what each stage is for before you spend a single hour preparing.
ENTRANCE GATEWAY INTO CS EXECUTIVE
CSEET, or an exemption route
Cleared CSEET, or exempted as an ICSI Foundation-pass, a qualifying graduate/postgraduate, or a CA Final/CMA Final-qualified candidate.
FOUR PAPERS, 400 MARKS
Group 1 — Jurisprudence & General Laws, Company Law & Practice, Setting up of Business & Labour Laws, Corporate Accounting & Financial Management
The group most candidates attempt first. Every paper is 20% case-study MCQ plus 80% descriptive except Paper 4, which is wholly descriptive.
THREE PAPERS, 300 MARKS
Group 2 — Capital Market & Securities Laws, Economic Commercial & IP Laws, Tax Laws & Practice
The group that completes the level. Both groups may be attempted together or one at a time, in either order.
CAN BEGIN ONCE EXECUTIVE IS CLEARED
Practical training — EDP, then 21 months
A 30-day Executive Development Programme (part online, part classroom) followed by 21 months under a practising Company Secretary or an eligible company. Professional-level exams can be attempted while this training is ongoing.
THE QUALIFYING EXAMINATION
CS Professional — seven papers, including two electives
Five compulsory papers (modelled on this hub) plus two open-book electives, one chosen from each of two elective lists. Passing, plus completed training and a shorter Professional Development Programme, admits a candidate to ICSI membership.
The exam pattern, tier by tier
Marks, timing and negative marking exactly as per the official notification.
Group 1 — Jurisprudence & General Laws, Company Law & Practice, Setting up of Business & Labour Laws, Corporate Accounting & Financial Management
The group most candidates attempt first400 marks · 20% case-study MCQ + 80% descriptive, except Paper 4 (wholly descriptive) Q
3 hours per paper, plus 15 minutes' reading time · A small negative mark on the MCQ portion where it applies — confirm the exact current figure against ICSI's own notification.
| Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 — Jurisprudence, Interpretation and General Laws | 20% MCQ + 80% descriptive | 100 | 180 min |
| Paper 2 — Company Law and Practice | 20% MCQ + 80% descriptive | 100 | 180 min |
| Paper 3 — Setting up of Business, Industrial and Labour Laws | 20% MCQ + 80% descriptive | 100 | 180 min |
| Paper 4 — Corporate Accounting and Financial Management | Wholly descriptive | 100 | 180 min |
💡 Paper 4 (Corporate Accounting and Financial Management) is taught on this hub as two subjects — Corporate Accounting and Financial Management — since the single 100-mark paper genuinely combines two separable disciplines that alias cleanly into two different CA Intermediate source subjects.
Group 2 — Capital Market & Securities Laws, Economic, Commercial & IP Laws, Tax Laws & Practice
The group that completes the level300 marks · 20% case-study MCQ + 80% descriptive Q
3 hours per paper, plus 15 minutes' reading time · A small negative mark on the MCQ portion where it applies — confirm the exact current figure against ICSI's own notification.
| Section | Questions | Marks | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 5 — Capital Market and Securities Laws | 20% MCQ + 80% descriptive | 100 | 180 min |
| Paper 6 — Economic, Commercial and Intellectual Property Laws | 20% MCQ + 80% descriptive | 100 | 180 min |
| Paper 7 — Tax Laws and Practice | 20% MCQ + 80% descriptive | 100 | 180 min |
💡 Both groups, together with completed practical training, are required before a candidate can register for CS Professional.
Where CS Executive's 700 marks come from
Seven papers of 100 marks, arranged in two groups — Group 1 has four papers, Group 2 has three. Every paper is 20% case-study-based multiple choice plus 80% descriptive, except Paper 4 (Corporate Accounting and Financial Management), which is wholly descriptive. This hub organises the seven ICSI papers into eight subjects rather than seven, because Paper 4 genuinely combines two separable disciplines — company accounting and financial management — that alias into two different CA Intermediate source subjects, the same architecture used for CMA Intermediate's own Paper 10. Click any block to open its chapters:
Jurisprudence, Interpretation and General Laws100 marks · 14.3%
Group 1. Jurisprudence, the Constitution and interpretation of statutes share the paper with general laws — contract, torts, civil and criminal procedure, evidence, limitation and information — the paper with the widest spread of distinct legal subjects on this hub.
Company Law and Practice100 marks · 14.3%
Group 1. Incorporation, capital and charges share the paper with directors, meetings, accounts, audit and the secretarial function — the paper closest to a Company Secretary's day-to-day statutory work.
Setting up of Business, Industrial and Labour Laws100 marks · 14.3%
Group 1. Choice of business entity and registrations share the paper with the four Labour Codes — the newest major legislative change examined at this level.
Corporate Accounting50 marks · 7.1%
Group 1, half of Paper 4. Schedule III financial statements, amalgamation, internal reconstruction and consolidated financial statements — this hub's wholly descriptive half of the paper.
Financial Management50 marks · 7.1%
Group 1, half of Paper 4. Cost of capital, capital structure, capital budgeting, working capital and dividend decisions — the numerical half of the paper.
Capital Market and Securities Laws100 marks · 14.3%
Group 2. Market structure, SEBI and intermediaries share the paper with the regulations governing an actual securities issue and continuing listed-entity obligations — genuinely new content on this hub, with no CA/CMA equivalent.
Economic, Commercial and Intellectual Property Laws100 marks · 14.3%
Group 2. FEMA, Competition Act, PMLA, Benami law and foreign trade policy share the paper with the four core IP statutes — also new content, with the IP half examined nowhere else on this hub.
Tax Laws and Practice100 marks · 14.3%
Group 2. Direct tax computation shares the paper with GST and a customs outline, aliased almost wholesale from CA Intermediate's own Taxation paper.
Subjects in CS Executive
Chapter-by-chapter study material built to the exam's own blueprint.
Topic-wise weightage — what to study first
Question counts per topic, distilled from previous-year paper analyses. Click any topic with a link to open its full chapter.
🎯 The widest spread of distinct legal subjects in any single paper on this hub — treat each as its own small, closed body of knowledge rather than one continuous subject. Jurisprudence rewards correctly naming a school of thought and its thinkers; the Constitution and General Clauses Act reward precise article and section numbers; torts, procedure, evidence, limitation, RTI and arbitration each turn on a handful of named tests and time limits. This content teaches the current Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) and Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam (BSA), which replaced the CrPC and Evidence Act on 1 July 2024, not the superseded codes.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Method — How to Write Company Law Answers | method | Very high |
| Preliminary and Incorporation of Companies | ~14 | High |
| Prospectus, Share Capital and Debentures | ~16 | Very high |
| Deposits and Registration of Charges | ~10 | Medium |
| Management, Administration and Dividend | ~16 | Very high |
| Accounts of Companies, Audit and Auditors | ~16 | Very high |
| Secretarial Standards, the Company Secretary's Role, Inspection and Investigation | ~18 | Very high |
🎯 The paper closest to daily Company Secretary practice, and it rewards the same provision-cited, applied-to-the-facts, concluded discipline every law paper on this hub rewards. Secretarial Standards SS-1 and SS-2 (on board and general meetings) are this paper's most distinctly CS-specific content — memorise their notice periods and quorum rules precisely, since they are drafted to a level of procedural detail the Companies Act itself does not always specify.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Choice of Business Entity, Registrations, the FDI Route and Not-for-Profit Organisations | ~55 | Very high |
| Labour Codes in Outline | ~45 | Very high |
🎯 Part A is comparative and procedural — know which entity type fits which situation, and which registration or licence follows from that choice. Part B's four Labour Codes are the newest major legislative change tested at this level; the wage codes' 50% rule and the Industrial Relations Code's 300-worker threshold are the two facts most worth memorising precisely, since both are exactly the kind of numeric threshold that is either right or wrong, with no partial credit.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Method — How to Crack Corporate Accounting | method | Very high |
| The Accounting Standards Framework and Applicability | ~8 | Medium |
| Financial Statements of Companies and Buyback | ~18 | Very high |
| Amalgamation and Internal Reconstruction | ~16 | Very high |
| Consolidated Financial Statements | ~14 | High |
🎯 Every part of this half-paper is wholly descriptive with no MCQ cushion, so full working notes matter directly — a correct final figure without workings earns only partial credit. Company financial statements under Schedule III, amalgamation/internal reconstruction and consolidated financial statements are format-driven topics that reward reproducing the correct statement structure exactly, the same discipline CA Intermediate's own Advanced Accounting rewards.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Method — How to Crack Financial Management | method | Very high |
| Scope, Objectives and Types of Financing | ~6 | Medium |
| Ratio Analysis and Financial Planning | ~8 | High |
| Cost of Capital | ~8 | Very high |
| Capital Structure and Leverages | ~8 | Very high |
| Investment Decisions: Capital Budgeting | ~10 | Very high |
| Dividend Decision and Working Capital Management | ~10 | High |
🎯 Cumulative and numerical — cost of capital feeds capital structure, which feeds every capital-budgeting answer downstream, so a shaky early chapter quietly damages the rest. Because this half-paper is wholly descriptive, every numerical answer needs to show its formula and working, not just its final figure.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Capital Market Structure, SEBI and Market Intermediaries | ~48 | Very high |
| Issue of Capital, LODR, Insider Trading and Takeovers | ~52 | Very high |
🎯 Genuinely new content with no CA/CMA equivalent on this hub — the numeric thresholds (SAST's 25%/5%/75% triggers, ICDR timelines, buy-back caps) are what actually get tested, so learn them as a fixed set of named percentages rather than a general narrative. Several of these thresholds have moved through 2025-2026 regulatory amendments — treat any specific figure as worth a final check against SEBI's current regulations before an exam attempt.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Competition Act, PMLA, Benami Law and Foreign Trade Policy | ~30 | Very high |
| The Foreign Exchange Management Act, 1999 | ~20 | High |
| Intellectual Property Laws: Patents, Trademarks, Copyright and Designs | ~50 | Very high |
🎯 Two genuinely different halves stapled into one paper. Part A's five statutes (FEMA, Competition Act, FTP, PMLA, Benami law) each turn on a handful of numeric thresholds and a named institutional process — attach the number to the statute, not to a vague memory. Part B's four IP statutes are this hub's only intellectual-property content and reward knowing each right's term of protection precisely (patents 20 years, trademarks a renewable 10 years, copyright life-plus-60, designs 10-plus-5) since the four are easy to mix up under exam pressure.
| Topic | Marks | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Method — How to Crack Tax Laws | method | Very high |
| Basic Concepts and Residential Status | ~8 | Very high |
| Salaries and Income from House Property | ~8 | High |
| Profits and Gains of Business or Profession | ~10 | Very high |
| Capital Gains and Income from Other Sources | ~10 | Very high |
| Clubbing, Set-Off and Deductions from Gross Total Income | ~8 | High |
| TDS, TCS, Advance Tax, Returns and Tax Computation | ~8 | High |
| GST: Introduction, Supply, Charge and Place of Supply | ~10 | Very high |
| GST: Exemptions, Time and Value of Supply | ~8 | High |
| Input Tax Credit and Registration | ~10 | Very high |
| GST: Documentation, Payment and Returns | ~6 | Medium |
| Customs Duty: An Outline | ~6 | Low |
🎯 Treat the two halves as two separate papers stapled together, same as every tax paper on this hub. Income-tax computation follows a fixed five-heads-then-deductions skeleton; GST resolves almost every question to whether it is a supply, whether it is taxable, when liability arises and on what value. Customs is deliberately shallow — a CIF-valuation formula and a handful of duty-type distinctions, not a full customs-law treatment.
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FAQs
Frequently asked questions
Seven papers of 100 marks: Group 1 has four papers (Jurisprudence & General Laws, Company Law & Practice, Setting up of Business & Labour Laws, Corporate Accounting & Financial Management), Group 2 has three (Capital Market & Securities Laws, Economic Commercial & IP Laws, Tax Laws & Practice). Candidates may attempt one group at a time or both together, in either order.
No. Every paper is 20% case-study-based objective (MCQ) plus 80% descriptive, except Paper 4 (Corporate Accounting and Financial Management), which is wholly descriptive with no MCQ component at all.
Two conditions applied group by group: at least 40 marks in each individual paper of the group, and at least 50% of the group's aggregate. This mirrors the pass structure used at CMA Intermediate and CMA Final on this hub.
Only if you don't qualify for an exemption. ICSI Foundation-passed students, graduates and postgraduates meeting the marks criterion, and candidates who have already cleared CA Final or CMA Final can register for Executive directly without CSEET. ICSI restructured CSEET itself for the June 2026 session onward, to a four-paper, 400-mark pattern — confirm the current pattern directly with ICSI before an attempt.
Every paper maps to one subject except Paper 4 (Corporate Accounting and Financial Management), which this hub teaches as two subjects — Corporate Accounting and Financial Management — since the two disciplines are genuinely separable and alias cleanly into two different CA Intermediate source subjects. The official paper, and its 100 marks, remains one paper for registration and result purposes.
Substantially, for the law, accounting and financial-management papers — the underlying statutes, accounting standards and FM formulas are the same facts regardless of which institute examines them, so this hub aliases directly into the equivalent CA Foundation, CA Intermediate and CMA Intermediate chapters wherever the syllabi genuinely match. Capital Market and Securities Laws and the Intellectual Property half of Paper 6 are written fresh, since neither exists anywhere else on this hub.
A 30-day Executive Development Programme (part e-learning, part classroom) once Executive is cleared, followed by 21 months of practical training under a practising Company Secretary or an eligible company. Professional-level exams can be attempted while this training is running, and a shorter Professional Development Programme follows Professional-level qualification, before ICSI membership.
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